Hello!!

One of the oddest thing that has happened on this trip is the number of people who have approached us and asked to have their picture taken with us. It's happened everywhere we went, with people of all ages and both sexes. This lady saw us having lunch and asked for a picture, so we decided we'd get one back. During this entire day in Hangzhou I'm not sure we saw another western face amoung the tens of thousands of people we saw. Virtually everyone stares at us as they pass, often whispering among themselves. But they're all very friendly. It's also fairly common for people to get a huge smile as we approach and give us a loud "Hello" as they pass. It's often one of the only words they know in English, and there is nothing to match the delighted look they get when you give them a return "Hello" and they realize they made contact. Sometimes they want to practice speaking English and sometimes they just want to chat "you're from Washington DC?!!!! Famous capital!!! Abraham Lincoln!! George Washington!! We love Obama"" and anything else they can connect. When Chris was with us we even got invited to a tea festival by 3 young strangers from Xian who could not have been more thrilled to be chatting up a storm with us on the street.